Child Abuse Leads to Heightened Reactivity (Research Paper Sample)

Child Abuse leads to Heightened Reactivity
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Introduction
Question: Can abused Children’s brain contribute to heightened reactivity?
Children depend on their parents or caregivers for physiological and behavioral support or regulation. The parents have to ensure that their children experience a stress-free environment because the caregivers are the co-regulators of behavior. Children who enjoy support develop well-regulated behavior and emotions, which make it easy for them to relate with peers as well as excel in their academics. However, children from a violent home or abusive environment find it difficult to experience emotional support, making them vulnerable to a challenging environment. Children indeed have a capability of coping with stress when supported by caregivers but in absence of such support, the study suggests children end up developing heightened reactivity. The study is significant because it is essential to understand the potential pathways that lead to child abuse. It helps in predicting the influences of the family environment on a child's development, making the study act as a parental guide. The study is also important in understanding the relationship between abuse and a child's cognitive development. As the research will illustrate, abused children experience behavioral and emotional difficulties such as heightened anxiety and emotional reactivity.
Research Questions
1 Does child abuse affect brain development?
2 Can child abuse lead to behavior and emotional change?
Hypothesis
Children abuse lead to heightened anxiety, emotional reactivity, as well as insufficiency in emotional processing.
Research Method
The study is qualitative research aiming at understanding the emotional state of abused children. Specifically, the study will utilize a qualitative systematic review of evidence from previous studies conducted by experts on child abuse effects on children's behavior. The method will be rigorous to ensure minimization of bias as well as help in drawing conclusions regarding the gathered information. The review will employ a reproducible search strategy as well as assess all results for inclusion or exclusion. The review will also include material reading from the course readings to ensure the presentation of an unbiased and balanced summary of findings.
Discussion
According to Leverich (2008), in her book “Child Abuse,” child abuse exists in many forms. They include physical abuse, domestic violence, sexual, and psychological abuse. She insists that child abuse is a major crisis worldwide and the reason for its emergence is drug and alcohol abuse, failing social programs, poverty, as well as poor parenting skills. She recommends government interventions through the creation of strict laws to help deter the horrific crimes against children. Annerbäck et al. (2012) examined the relationship between child abuse perpetrated by a parent/caregiver and health risks or risk-taking behaviors among teenagers. The study evaluated abuses such as physical abuse and their association with bad health status and heightened behaviors. The study utilized a survey to explore children's exposure to physical abuse, parental violence, bullying, as well as sexual abuse. They found out that child physical abuse led to poor health and risk-taking behaviors. Additionally, being in a violent home led to heightened emotional reactivity and the effects were more dangerous to children experiencing multiple forms of abuse such as physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. The researchers concluded that child abuse is a major public health problem. They noted a relationship between abuse and poor health behaviors, calling for improvements in child caring, especially where professionals meet young people. Glaser (2000) in a study “Child Abuse and Neglect and the Brain,” found out that the brain experiences changes due to child abuse and neglect. For example, abused children experienced emotional and behavioral difficulties. Such children demonstrated hyperactive arousal, dissociative reactions, as well as educational underachievement. The findings proposed a deficit model whereby lack of relevant input to the development of a child in critical stages results to delay or absence in the development of certain skills. In other words, the findings concluded that changes in a child's caregiving relationships influence later outcomes for a child's development.
Conclusively, the findings answer the research questions as well as agree with the proposed study that child abuse leads to heightened